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Tag Archives: resin conversion

In what’s getting close to my final MaxMini review post for awhile, I’m sharing their various Jump Packs today. I picked up set of 5 of their Iron Pattern Jump Packs shortly after they were released, though due to the joy of moving twice in a relatively short period, they got put in a box and not used (story of my figures’ bloody life!) Recently, I decided to start to resurrect some of my armies, so I’ve been buying cool resin bits, which at the moment mostly sit around until I can work out some army lists and then motivate myself to get them started/finished.

I originally got these to use either with my Iron Warriors or possibly my old-school-style Crimson Fists. So anyway, with 5 of these suckers already in hand, I needed to get another 5 to finish a squad. So I did. I may need a second 10 of them so I can kit out both armies with them. I’ve tried to give my Iron Warriors more of a Renegade Marine vibe than a gribbly chaos marine one. As cool as the new DV figures are, and as much as they harken back to the old Slaves to Darkness style, I actually want to go with the “loyalists with spikes” look for the dour, mechanically-oriented Iron Warriors – more likely to amputate a tentacle and replace it with a bionic arm than to accept it as a gift of chaos, so studded mechanics work from my perspective.

Size Shot – Maxmini Iron Pattern Jump Pack.

Here’s the pack being modelled by a marine I’ve been working on for a mate. He won’t have a jump pack in his final form, but since his wasn’t glued on, I thought he’d work fine as a Jump Pack model. As you can see, this Jump Pack is a pretty big piece of work.

Maxmini Silver WIng Jump Packs

While I was at it, I decided to pick up a set of 10 of their other two new styles. The Silver Wing Pattern Jump Packs will go perfectly with either Blood or Dark Angels, and as I have a small DA force and an unbuilt BA force, there’s potential to once again buy a second set of them so both forces can use them. The DA already have a mostly-built Assault Squad though, so maybe I’ll just grab another 5 for some Character models.

Size Shot – Maxmini Silver Wing Jump Pack.

As you can see in the photos, the Silver Wing packs are just as big as the Iron Pattern, though I was surprised as the details are almost entirely different, aside from the turbines and the part that plugs into the back of the model they’re being mounted on. The detail is really quite nice, with lots of exposed wires, pipes and tubes again giving it an old-school look, though perhaps not all that OH&S-friendly.

Maxmini Bronze Pattern Jump Packs

Finally, I grabbed a set of 10 of the Bronze Pattern Jump Packs. These don’t fit the old-school vibe in the exact same way as either of other the turbine-topped styles, but I thought the huge vented intakes looked pretty cool, so I again got a set of 10 to kit out a squad (of something TBD).

Size Shot – Maxmini Bronze Pattern Jump Pack.

Now if you thought the other two were big, these will really impress. These ones are edging towards being ludicrously big, but despite this, I really like them. The sculpting and design on them are really well done and a bit different. They still look a little Horus-Heresy-retro, but perhaps like something that was newer then. They look like something that would fit in with the era of this classic Paul Bonner Dark Angels painting (used as a WD cover back in the day). Not-quite Rogue Trader, Not quite modern era. Around the days of Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine. Note the marine firing! If you look carefully, you can see how he’d probably like you to say hello to his little friend..

After some requests for size comparisons on the MaxMini from Dakka and in the comments, I’ve taken some quick photos to help people judge which heads are right and wrong for their own purposes. I’ve also got an older review – of the Steam Knight helmets. Though I only used Marine bodies on that one, as you can see in that post, they’re on the smaller side, and so I think they’d work on smaller like the below Mantic/McVey models as well.

MaxMini heads and various figures.

From left-right, we have a Sedition Wars female, a “marine” made of a Maxmini head, GW torso and Anvil Industries legs. A sci-fi Bombshell Babe. She’s about the height of a marine, but less bulky – A good representative for many of Reaper’s sci-fi figures. Next is A Mantic Enforcer, Mantic Corporation with actual head, Sedition Wars male, and another Mantic Corporation fig with Maxmini “Biohazard” diving bell. Last up, we have a completed GW Space Marine.

MaxMini heads.

So. Opinion time. The gladiator helmets are a little small for marines, but workable. They’re also suitable for the McVay and Mantic figures, as actual gladiator helmets are pretty damned big.

The Black Lotus helmets are perfect for marines, but a bit big for the truescale figures – unless you want big ancients helmets for them.

The “Immortals” Egyptian helmets would work on the McVey/Mantic bodies. They might seem a touch big, but then there’s a lot of bling on them, so if you disregard all of the spikes and so forth which make them look bigger, they work. Similarly, they work on marines, but may look a touch smallish.

MaxMini heads.

The Mecha-Egyptian helmets (V.1) look perfect for marines, but a bit big to go with the truescale figures. Similarly, the Biohazard heads are perfect for marines but too big for the truescales. A possible exception for the “diving bell” helmet, since diving bells IRL are huge, so with a trim to the neck they could work with truescale figure – depending on what you’re trying to do.

The Hybrid heads are a good fit for truescale figures – bear in mind that they are deliberately bulbous, though. They seem a little small for marines.

Once again, I hope this is helpful. I realise it might be a touch mroe useful if I clipped off a bunch of the heads and blu-tacked them to a Mantic and GW torso, but I don’t want to cut up the sprues at this stage, since it makes the heads easier to lose. (yeah, after moving house, I need to find those Steam Knight helmets I linked earlier..!)

So it’s the next set of pictures and commentary of the recent order I received from Maxmini. In my last post I looked at the twotypes of Mecha Egyptian heads that they offer. This time it’s a bit more varied. Once again, all images are clickable for bigger versions.

MaxMini Gladiator Helmets.

First up are the Gladiator helmets. I bought these without any incredibly firm use for them, simply because they looked so nice. I’ve been considering using them as heads for Pre-Heresy-styled World Eater Gladiators. Maybe Khornate ones that still have their old Relic-aged helmets – or I’ve just realised as I’ve been typing this that they would be perfect for my Iron Warriors berserkers that I’ve been intending to build for the last 5 years – I’ve just been needing a way to make them unique, but distinctly both berserkers and Iron Warriors without using the “bunny ears”. Now I’ll have to buy a few more… hmm…

MaxMini Alien Hybrid Heads

Next up are the Alien Hybrid heads. Again, I bought these without any immediate purpose. I’ve got a bunch of old-school Genestealers and Hybrids that I need to get around to sometime, but they’re not a priority in my paint queue for the time being. As you can see, they’re finely detailed, though they’re quite small – more truescale than heroic. Having said that, I’m sure they’d work well on top of a guardsman’s body. Something I’m happy to have in my bits box for the moment when I’m building something and decide I’ll need them.

MaxMini Biohazard Heads

MaxMini Biohazard helmets. Unlike the others, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with these from the moment I saw them. These will be going onto the heads of Plague Marines and Death Guard. When I got these, I opted out of the one sculpt that didn’t appeal to me (in execution, not concept) by asking the MaxMini guys for a custom mix. Since they’re able to do that without a hassle from a lot of the items in their range, it was no problem, and I picked up an extra pair of the “diving bell” sculpt, which I really like. I’ll probably pick up some more of these down the line as well, as the Diving Bell also has a lot of potential outside of the specific CSM use I plan for most of them.

MaxMini Tribe of Black Lotus Helmets

Finally, for this post at least is the Tribe of Black Lotus Helmets. A bit of a long, unwieldy name, yes, but some great sculpts. In the past I’d considered these but passed, as I didn’t have a specific use for them, but now I’ve pretty much got two solid options for them, and will probably go with both. These will be used in a mixture of a Greek-themed Space Marine force (no, not Minotaurs, though I’ll certainly use some of their Forge World parts) and also steal a few of them to use on Various Slaanesh Champion and Emperor’s Children figures. (2017 Edit – Erm, yeah, I am actually doing Minotaurs now, using these on the odd commander-type model!)

Maxmini Tribe of Black Lotus Helmets

As you can see, these parts are pretty much flash-free, with just a small bit of cleanup required on an occasional piece. Clean bubble-free casts, and quality (non-itchy!) resin.

There’s a few other nice-looking head/helmet styles on offer from MaxMini as well that I’ll be purchasing in the future to check out. The Space Police, Steam Knight Noble and Zombie heads are all ones that look good and I’ll likely be purchasing and reviewing in the future, so look out for those (in a couple of months.)

The next post will be MaxMini stuff, as I’ve got some jump packs and other odds and ends to review. After that, I’ve got a bunch of stuff I’ve bought from Kromlech, Scibor and Puppetswar to photograph and review, so the Polish Resin series will have a fair few more installments to come!

I’ve picked up some more new stuff from the talented artisans in Poland. This time, a selection of items from Maxmini. I have bought stuff from them a few timesbefore, and never had a problem with their service or quality – this order once again lived up to my previous experiences. Three week turnaround from ordering to arriving in my happy paws in Australia, which is a little longer than most orders from the UK or US, but 3 weeks from Poland including processing time seems pretty fair. It certainly doesn’t take months for stuff to come from Poland, as others have suggested.

I should point out that I’m not affiliated with Maxmini in any way and paid full normal retail for this order (and the previous ones) – I simply like to support businesses that offer quality product, are friendly, efficient and don’t screw me around.

So anyway, I placed a decent-sized order with them, now I’m sharing them with the world. Next up I need to actually do something with them. (hopefully!) Too much stuff to paint, and too many distractions.

When I saw these twotypes of heads, I knew they would work really well with a Thousand Sons force. I’ve got quite a few of the GW TS heads, but I think these will mix in really nicely to reinforce the Pseudo-Egyptian theme.

Maxmini Mecha Egyptian Helmets

Yeah, I should have photographed the Mecha Egyptian helmets in descending rows like I did the Immortals.

Maxmini Immortals Helmets – Mecha Egyptian MK2

Now for the Close-up shots! (all images clickable) You can see both the detail and how clean the casts are.

Maxmini Mecha Egyptian Helmets – Close Up.

Maxmini Immortals Helmets – Close Up

I also bought a bunch of other heads and Jump Packs in the same order, but I’ll put those up in the next updates over the next few days. They’re just as good as I’ve come to expect from Maxmini, though.

This week I was lucky enough to take delivery of several sets of resin conversion parts from a trio of Polish sculpting studios. Since I know I’m always keen to see “in hand” and decent quality pictures of these things (as opposed to the website pics which can be small or not so great or even “too perfect” 3D renders – and they usually can’t show you comparison pics with other manufacturers’ models, so I’ll do some of that as well.

I have the Maxminis Pirate Orc heads. Just right for any group (crew?) of freebooting Orcs, Orks or even Orx that one may want to put together. I picked up both sets – the larger Nob-sized Pirate Orc Heads as well as the smaller Pirate Orc Boys Heads.

Comparison shot with some Black Reach Orc Nob heads, and also a couple of pics of a couple of the Nob heads blu-tac’ed onto some Black Reach Ork bodies.

Brilliant sculpting. Easily on a par with or better than GW (better than their plastics, equal at least to their metals and I haven’t checked out finecast yet). The resin is good quality – not the kind that makes your hands itch after touching it, and as can clearly be seen by these pictures, there are no miscast parts, no bits of the mould stuck in the detail, and not even any bubbles in the resin. Cleanup would take about 40 seconds-1minute per head – just trimming any tiny pits of chin flash (not all of them have any) and flattening the base of the neck. Top quality!

I’ve also got some of their Steam Knight stuff I’ll put up shortly – probably tomorrow if I get time. That’s also extremely well done. I’ll definitely buy more of these guys’ Orc resin pieces in the future.

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Photobucket Image Apocalypse:

Just a quick note to let visitors to my blog know that I am working my way backwards through the blog, repairing the image links that Photobucket cut off in their attempt to self-immolate their business. It’ll take some time, but it’ll get done.

My apologies for the inconvenience.

Update: Posts fixed back to 25th Sept, 2016 – Yay, over a full year of posts are intact again!

(and quite a few older posts beyond that, though not in any special sequence!)

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